The Michigan state House of Representatives voted Wednesday to repeal the state’s anti-union “right to work” law which prevented unions from collecting service fees from non-union workers who benefited from union negotiations and oversight, the Detroit Free-Press reports.
With new majorities in both chambers of the legislature, won during the midterm elections, and Democrat Gretchen Whitmer in the governor’s chair, Democrats are rolling back many of the anti-labor laws put in place by the Republicans over the past decade. “It has done nothing but hurt hardworking Michiganders,” Democratic legislator Regina Weiss, the bill’s primary sponsor, said. “It has allowed people who don’t pay union dues to take advantage of union benefits.”